Archive for the ‘Volkswagen Rabbit GTI’ tag

Note: I write up driving impressions of virtually every car I photograph, within a couple of days of the drive, so everything is fresh in my memory. Occasionally, because of the constraints of format (ie, buyer’s guide) the prepared text doesn’t run. Now, thanks to the joys of the blogosphere, it can.

Slide on in. The dark red interior has a fairly regal look to it – not quite the sparse, sporting cabin trimmings we’re used to hearing about in GTIs of yore. It’s purposeful, not bereft. The sunroof may eat a little bit of headroom, and the chairs are tight around the driver’s hips and sides, yet don’t pinch you at the shoulders. With lots of glass, close to your face, there’s ample visibility in all directions. Look, vent windows. How quaint.

We move the front bucket all the way back and find ourselves forced into an Italianate driving position – long-armed and short-legged. Yet the shifter, even for your gorilla-armed tester, seemed too far away – like I’d have to be hunched over the steering wheel, ’60s Super-Stock style, in order to reach. That wheel, by the way, looks sporty in a Space: 1999 sci-fi sort of way, but it’s a tad thin to grab onto. Nice stalks thought – tight, as if they were on a new car.

The gauges are simple and unimpeded. The 115 MPH speedometer is a surprise here; why is it not an 85 MPH speedo in this 1984 machine? And that 6,300 RPM redline gives us something to shoot for.

Acceleration is surprising – we’re not sure whether it’s the bantamweight curb weight or the gearing, probably both, but it feels like there are more than 90 emissions-choked horses at work here. (We’ve driven enough other stock early ’80s performance cars to now see why the GTI was such a revelation on launch all those years ago.) It sounds eager to please also, despite the Pep Boys muffler on there.

Pitch yourself into a turn, and you need to be moving with some speed to press it into the three-point football stance. Fairly neutral and quite flingable! The steering is on the heavy side around town, but at speeds approaching interesting, it’s not an issue, and there’s plenty of feedback through the wheel. Similarly, the ride is wonderfully communicative around town – chatty but not coarse. We could see how it could get old on long cross-country jaunts, but banging around the ‘burbs, it’s enormous fun.

The shifter is easy, with a delightfully tactile golf-ball knob, if a little on the mushy side. Shifting into fifth is particularly vague, akin to stirring your morning oatmeal. When you press the clutch, you can feel the brake pedal torque in the box. Weird. The brakes are undramatic aside from the notion that they squeal like a girl getting a pony for Christmas.